El Monterey likes to say they’re America’s #1 brand for various things. On tha package for the El Monterey Extra Crunchy Diablo Chicken Taquitos, for example, there’s a badge that says “America’s #1 flour taquito.” The source for this claim is Nielsen scan data, which leads us to believe this is about sales numbers and not about personal preference (though we suppose people buying taquitos are voting for their preferences with their wallet).
Anyway, we’re going to see what these are all about today, as we’re diving into the El Monterey Extra Crunchy Diablo Chicken Taquitos. Are these deserving of that #1 badge? Let’s find out.
You can cook these in the microwave or the oven. We decided to try both, since the “Extra Crispy” part of the title probably requires oven baking, while the more common cooking method is probably the microwave. Since a box contains 21 taquitos, there are more than enough to try these both ways.
The oven-cooked taquitos are shown below.
(If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)
If you heat these in the oven, the shells do get crispy. We wouldn’t call these “extra” crispy, but they do have a good crunch to them. As you might imagine, they don’t maintain this crispiness when heated in the microwave. though they do end up with a texture that suggests they were intended to be crispy at one time.
We’ve pointed this out in previous El Monterey reviews, but it’s worth repeating here: We think the flavor of the filling stands out just a little more when you microwave these. We’re not sure why that is, but it’s true for these taquitos as well. The filling here is a shredded chicken with some green chile peppers and seasoning thrown in. It’s a simple concoction, but it works out pretty well. We think these end up being pretty tasty.
These taquitos are spicy, but in the “our nose gets a little runny” way and not the “we need to run to a fire hydrant immediately” way. Still, that’s spicier than we expected these to be.
While the oven cooking instructions have you baking six at a time, El Monterey insists that a serving size is actually three. If you stick with three taquitos, you’re looking at 220 calories (90 from fat) and 440 mg of sodium. That means if you cook six and eat all of them, you’re at 440 calories (180 from fat) and 880 mg of sodium. Keep that in mind if you decide to go back for seconds.
The El Monterey Extra Crunchy Diablo Chicken Taquitos are actually pretty tasty. The shells get crunchy in the oven, and these are spicier than we expected. While we certainly wouldn’t file these as “gourmet food,” they still make for a satisfying snack. That makes a box of these taquitos something you might want to keep stocked in your freezer for when you need an afternoon snack to tide you over, or for when you just need a little bit of spice in your life.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for these frozen taquitos, check out our package scans below.